The clarion., 1887-10-12
Agricultural Land Scrip Fund /!
The Legal Obligations and Indebt.
edness of the State to the A. &
M. College, Alcorn Univer-
sity and Industrial Fe-
male Institute.
IAoKsoS- MISS. Sept. 27. 1887.

| sOiu, IL WAS Qlflucu, Dub III aAO4 NoA Pm
portions, between that institution and
the State Uliversity-neither OF then
| being such a college as is contemplated
in the Act of Congress, as the benehcia
~ of the Fund. Afterwards, when the
A. & NJ. College was inaugursted, that
| Fund, or the interest on 1t, was divided
| equally between that institution and the
| Alcorn University. So far as the Alcorn
| University is concerned, such division
| was in direct controvention of the Act OF
Congress donating the Fund. That
University is not a school Gin which the
leading object is to teach such
branches of learning as relate to agri-
culture and the mechanic arts. Bat
the friends of the A. & NJ. College have
no right to complain of this division OF
the Fund in the past, since the State,
out of its own treasury, and with its own
money, has voluntarily donated to the
A. & NJ. College far larger sum annual
ly than the sum diverted to Alcorn Uni
yersity. 1t can make no difference to the
A. & NJ. College whether the amount
of annual interest diverted to the
ALCoRN UNIVERSITY
is paid to it, in that specific way, or
from other appropriations.
have heard, and believe, that the Al
corn University is well managed, and
is doing good work. 1t, however, has
no legal demand on the State for dol
lar which the State does not wish to ap-
propriate. Begging your pardon, how
ever, for this diversion, | will say, that
| regard the Alcorn University as val
liable institution, and that its reasona-
BILE and proper support by the State is
not only wise and just, but political
aud race necessity.
] come now to the
INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE FOR GIRLS,
at Columbus. 1t has no endowment of
any kind, and the State is under no le-
gal obligations to maintain 1t, beyond
this: that the city of Columbus donated
to the State $50, 700 as a condition of the
location of the College there. This sum
has been accepted and used by the State.
And whilst / think, as matter of law,
it imposes no binding obligation on the
State to keep it up, yet it is Just, legal
obligation resting on the State, and
binding on her good faith and honor, if
the institute is ever removed, to return
this money to the city. This obligation
extends to all subscriptions made by
private parties as the price or condition
of locating the Institute at Columbus.
I proceed now to consider the legal re-
lations of the State to
THE A. & NJ. COLLEGE.
| wish to premise here, that all these
State colleges, and the State University,
are public corporations. They are mere
instruments of the State, to do work for
the State. With the exception before
stated, of returning subscriptions made
as condition of locating them at the
particular places where they now are, it
is entirely competent for the State to
abolish them. or remove them, or estab-
lish new institutions in their stead. The
State is hound, however. to keep up the
old institutions or establish new ones in
their stead. whenever there remains
part of the fund donated by Congress
for their establishment, or return the
fund to Congress None of these insti-
tutions can, per sc, assert any right in
themselves, as now organized and estab-
lished. They belong to the State-they
are the peoples property. Their trus-
tees and managers are mere agents of
the State To carry out the peoples will,
and none of them-rot one-can assert
rightfullv any adversary right against
the people of the State, any more than q
mans baud-his instrument of labor
can assert right against the man himself.
This you may set down as an undenia-
blc truth, though somewhat obscured by
the habit of all corporations-public as
well as private-even as to matters ex-
clusively public-claiming everything
pertaining in auv way to them. as their
peculiar and private and separate right
and property Whilst this. as l have
said, is an undeniable truth, yet / have
treated all these institutions as embody-
ing or representing every claim or de-
mand which NAV rightfully be made
in their behalf, and in that way, for the
purpose of argument, treating each as
the possessor of adversary rights against
the State, and the people of the State.
TIE LAND SCRIP GRANT.
Returning back to the A. & NJ. Col
lege:
By Act of Congress of July 27, 1892.
(12 u. s. Statutes at Large, p. 503) Con-
gress granted to each State, of the pub
lie lands, 10000 acres for each Senator
and Representative In Congress for an
agricultural college, or colleges. within
its borders. These lands wa-e TO he To-
Gated in the ate to which tho grant
was made, if there were public lands
enough there to supply it's quota; other
wise, scrip was to be issned which coul
he located on any public lands in the
S. subject to entry, at $l.25 per acre ;
but said location could not be made by
the State itself, outside of its own bor-
ders, but only by its assignees.
see from pamphlet issued by the
State University il 1879, referred to in
my first letter-and / suppose it is cor
rect-that land scrip was issued to Mis-
sissippi on this account, to the amount
of 100000 acres, which was sold by Gov.
Alcorn at 80 cents per acre, instead of
over S12 90, as in case OF the University
lands. Some appropriations we're made
for sites for colleges, and some interest
was paid. So that the Fund, as it now
stands, (and this, l believe, is uncontro-
verted) is, that which produces, at an
'nnual interest at per cent, the sum
of So, ,S57 which is $197, 140. One-half
! of this interest-say $4,92S. .50-goes TO
the A. q NJ College, and the other to
Aicorn University.
TERMS OF THE GRANT.
We now come to the speclhc terms of
this grant to the State, as laid down in
the Act of Congress.
i. The money derived from these
lands, or scrip, is required to be invest
ed in stocks of the u. s., or of the States,
| or some other safe stocks yielding moi
| less than 8 per cent. interest on the pal
value of said stocks, and the money &c
| invested shall constitute q perpetud
fund, the capital of sghich shdH remain for
erer nndi,ainished (except that 10 pei
cent of the original amount may be in
vested in sites for the colleges and ex-
| perimental farmsl and the interest shall
be inviolably appropriated to the
endowment, support and maintenance
of anagricultural and mechanical col
lege (see Sec 4, p. GOA
| And by the 9th section 1t was provid.
ed that the grant should be made on the
following conditions:
/. If any portion of the fund, or any
portion of the interest thereon, shall Shy
any action or contingency. be diminished o.
lost, Il should Be replaced By the State &.
| uhich II belongs, 90 that the capital of tn
fund shau remain forever undiminished
and there Is allowed the expenditure o.
10 per cent of the original amount ii
the purchase of lands for sites for fh,
colleges and experimental farms, as be
fore stated.
q "No portion Of said fund, nor th,
interest thereon, shall be appropriated
directly o. indirectiy, nnder ony pretens
phateper, to TIE parchase, srscfion. press,
.0fs<.~. ~ s.>,..s~ s,f o~ kusl1sx,< - kr.slf
Iinss."